Abstract
A setup of a unique x-ray source is put forward employing a relativistic electron beam interacting with two counterpropagating laser pulses in the nonlinear few-photon regime. In contrast to Compton scattering sources, the envisaged x-ray source exhibits an extremely narrow relative bandwidth of the order of , comparable with an x-ray free-electron laser. The brilliance of the x rays can be an order of magnitude higher than that of a state-of-the-art Compton source. By tuning the laser intensities and the electron energy, one can realize either a single peak or a comblike x-ray source of around keV energy. The laser intensity and the electron energy in the suggested setup are rather moderate, rendering this scheme compact and tabletop size, as opposed to x-ray free-electron laser and synchrotron infrastructures.
- Received 28 June 2021
- Revised 8 December 2021
- Accepted 17 December 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.024801
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.
Published by the American Physical Society